


Are You Seeing What I'm Seeing?

by whothebuckisfucky



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (there can be an and between that crazy smart honestly), Airplane Crashes, Alternate Universe - Mermaid, Alternate Universe - No Powers, M/M, Mermaid Bucky Barnes, Multi, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Still crazy smart Tony but without the iron man suit, injuries, stranded for a little while
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-03-29 21:36:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19028407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whothebuckisfucky/pseuds/whothebuckisfucky
Summary: He could make out the silhouettes of human bodies already, causing his chest to tighten up. The mer darted back upwards, the only heartbeats he could hear were ones that quickly faded into nothing. He circled the wreckage, unable to hear anything alive from it over the grinding sound of metal as the thing broke apart and sunk. He about swam away if not for a blue glow that managed to catch his eye along with hints of movement.





	1. It Fell From The Sky

Lightning crackled across the sky once again, driving the animal farther down in the water. Blue eyes watched upwards from the darker blue of the surrounding water, the sound of the storm heavily muffled by the sloshing waves above him. Another streak lit up the sky, followed by a handful more, colored scales faintly catching the light to reflect. 

A more inquisitive look crossed the mer’s features at a different type of light filling a part of the sky. He slowly pushed back upward but didn’t dare to surface with the storm still going on. Another bolt of lightning illuminated the glowing object as the creature pushed up farther to attempt a better look. He hadn’t the faintest idea of what it could be, but it sure looked as though it was getting closer. 

The object comes better into view once it fell more toward the water, glow bright enough to illuminate the animal as he watched. Eyes squinted more as he tried to make it out, but the waves had made it too difficult to see. That soon changed as the object hit the water, breaking and splitting apart to send blazing metal down into the depths. The same blue eyes widened and slit at the sudden impact as he darted lower to avoid the wreckage. He didn’t know what it was still, but the smell of blood was quick to fill the water before the object had the chance to fully submerge.

He could make out the silhouettes of human bodies already, causing his chest to tighten up. The mer darted back upwards, the only heartbeats he could hear were ones that quickly faded into nothing. He circled the wreckage, unable to hear anything alive from it over the grinding sound of metal as the thing broke apart and sunk. He about swam away if not for a blue glow that managed to catch his eye along with hints of movement.

Steve tugged frantically at the belt fastened to Tony, the salt water burning eyes and depth squeezed his lungs that were already screaming for a breath of air. He couldn’t tell if the other man was unconscious or dead, only knowing that he wasn’t moving. He knew he couldn’t go up for air either or he was certain that he would lose Tony. Hands fumbled with the belt, finally getting it unlocked with a tug. 

The next challenge would be how to get the man to the surface, not sure how far down the momentum had sent the two. He didn’t even know which way was up and which was down by then. He hooked arms around the other man’s middle, trying to kick to get them both pushed up to what he could only hope was the surface. 

The mer hesitated for a moment as he watched the small figure tugging up another. The heavy smell of blood seemed sickening by that point, senses overwhelmed by the scent and sounds around him. Only when the small figure started to struggle did the animal go closer. 

A desperate noise bubbled from Steve, past running out of air as he struggled to get Tony up to the surface. He wasn’t aware of how deep they were still, only having held onto hope that it was close. The strangled feeling in lungs only worsened with each second that passed, legs struggling to drag them both upwards. The terror he felt for both Tony and himself only seemed to crush his lungs more.

Clawed fingers grabbed around the smaller human’s arm to tow the two to the surface. He hoped that the man had enough of a hold on the other with the glow since the mer only had one arm to grip with. Tail paddled hard against the vortex of falling debris as he pushed them up and away from all of it. 

The conscious human couldn’t see who had them, but it at least gave him hope that someone else had survived. He hoped they could move quickly with how horribly his lungs ached, and he was sure the water wasn’t doing good for Tony either. He clung hard to the unmoving man as he tried still to kick feet to help get them up. The other person had to be a good swimmer with how quick he felt like they were being moved. 

Heavy gasped breaths drag in and out of Steve’s body as the feeling of breaking the surface finally hit. He sputtered over the turbulent waves that smacked into their bodies. Eyes burned far too much from the salt water to be able to see anything, the pain forcing him to keep them shut.

The smell of blood refused to diminish as Bucky surfaced with the two. He was quick to find out why as blood trickled from the unmoving one’s head and the smaller’s arm. He would have thought the one was dead had he not been able to hear the heartbeats from both of them. “Just try to keep above the waves. I’ll get something for you to hang onto.” He spoke. He hoped that the little one had it in him to fight the waves and keep both of them surfaced.

“Okay.” Steve crackled out back to him. His lungs felt on fire with each shaky inhale and exhale. He already knew he would need to fight hard against those waves to keep the two of them surfaced, but like hell was he going to let go of Tony. The overwhelming smell of salt water was only worsened by the thick smoke and metal smell in the air, causing the already difficult breathing condition to become much more so. 

Bucky fought a piece of floating debris over to the two, tail having to fight hard to cut through the thick feeling in the water. The only heartbeats he heard still were the two, which, led him to be certain that they were the only two survivors from the thing that had fallen out of the sky. A noise chirped out as lightning cracked above them again. Above the water, the sound was earsplitting and caused the animal to duck back under to pull the piece the rest of the way. He only resurfaced once he was a couple of feet from the two humans, tugging the object to get to them. He could already tell the small human couldn’t see from the way he acted, and he knew from past experience that human eyes didn’t mix well. 

Clawed hand reached for the conscious man again, unphased as waves crashed and tossed over them. His tail moved hard to keep afloat, dragging the two to bump into the floating object. “Let go of him and I’ll get him.” He told the human. He figured the longer he couldn’t see, the better he would trust him. 

Steve coughed heavily at water slamming over them as he tried his best to keep Tony from going back under. He could at least hear ragged breaths from the man, but that caused the worry that water had gotten in his lungs with the unconsciousness. He compliantly handed Tony over at the words, bleary as he looked and gripped to the piece of the plane. 

The lightning overhead was almost deafening, but it had started to move off from the crash site by then. The wind still left the water unsettled and churning with uneven waves. 

Bucky could smell the bodies around without having to look at the ones that had found their way to the surface. While he wasn’t always the biggest fan of humans, something like this made his stomach churn hard with distress. He gripped onto the unconscious man, waiting until the other got a good grip on the wreckage piece before he tossed the other up onto it belly down to give a rough jolt to lungs. 

The hit was enough to get Tony coughing and draw him to a groggy consciousness. The pain in his head was splitting enough to keep him from reacting really at all, thoughts too jumbled and incoherent for the time. His lungs felt as though they were crushing in on themselves, coughs leaving him roughly. 

Steve gripped hand onto the other man to keep him on the debris having to use the free hand to keep himself up with the waves being so rough. “Tony?” He croaked out between ragged breaths, even if he didn't expect a reply with his condition. Tears pressed out of eyes and he wasn’t quite sure if they were from the salt water that had gotten in them or the stress of the situation having been enough to overwhelm him. The lack of response confirms his earlier thought, but only making him curl fingers into soggy clothing more than before. 

The mer dipped back down under the two, listening out one last time for anyone else, but certain after only seconds that these two had to be the only ones still alive. The pungent smell of blood that overwhelmed his senses was enough to convince him of that at least. He resurfaced, instantly hearing the rough coughing from the two men and sniffing the air as he got close again. They were injured, but, luckily, it wasn’t heavy bleeding. 

“Just hold on and rest.” He spoke, moving to the side to where he could get a hand onto the metal piece. A hissed noise escaped at the loud boom overhead of the storm, ears really not liking that. He dipped back under to start tugging them, not having much trouble besides the waves causing resistance. He knew where there was land and he could get them there easily. 

Steve couldn’t argue even if he wanted to, coughing and gasping roughly. He couldn’t tell if there was water getting into his lungs or if he was going into an asthma attack. He could only try to level his gasped breaths since letting go of Tony or the metal didn’t sound like it would end good even if he desperately wanted to check to see if his inhaler was still in his pocket. 

The other man had to of gotten off easy with how strong he fought the waves to move them. The only thing to that was he was sure by the lack of other voices or coughing that it meant they were the only ones that had made it. The thought alone is raising his stress more, unsure what to even think right now. He chose to just thunk head down against the metal to try and force his breathing to stay as even as he could manage right now. More than anything, he was glad Tony had made it. 

Tony still struggled to understand what was going on through the pounding pain in his head, eyes staying squeezed shut with rough coughs wracking his body. He could comprehend that there was a hand gripped onto him and that he was on something hard, but that seemed to be all his mind would let him process on his surroundings. His body felt warm and drenched, but there was a separate hot feeling on his forehead as blood dripped down from where he had hit it. The vague sensations only came and went as his mind struggled to work again, slowly giving in to just not fighting the grogginess to focus on breathing. 

Bucky stays submerged deep enough to drag them along, but shallow enough to the surface to be able to hear if anything was seriously wrong besides the coughing. He dragged them along, tail working hard to keep the two moving. 

It took him a good half an hour to tow them there, but he managed to get them to an island shoreline. He popped back up to get a better look at the shoreline, hearing the twos’ ragged breathing as he came up. He let go of the spot to move more behind and beside the legs of the smaller man, hand gripping to metal to push them to where the waves would take them to shore. The animal followed loosely to avoid getting tangled up with the two humans as the current pushed them to the sand. It would be rough through the breaking waves, but it would get them there.

Steve became a little more coherent than before, not having realized he had drifted until waves rushed over their bodies again. He gasped in a breath, gripping Tony as the metal they were on flipped and tumbled with a wave catching it. 

Tony jolted more awake that time with the sudden movement inhaling a mouthful of water and gripping at the hand grabbing him. He choked as the two slammed up into the sand with the wave, a noise grunted as metal slammed over the two. The pulling feeling of the wave is getting him coherent enough to start crawling up onto the shore, vision blurred heavily as his head pounded. Rough coughs started all over again with the new introduction of water, already aching lungs on fire with pain.

Steve followed suit with the scramble up onto the shore, finally letting go of Tony, for now, to get up farther onto the land. He flopped down once he was certain of the distance being safe and fuzzily made out the figure as Tony came up next to him. There’s only a moment of relief passing before he flopped back into the sand to let exhaustion take over again. He didn’t need to open eyes to know the other man followed the same motion with the disturbance of the sand next to him. Oh god. His mind wanted to race but was too exhausted to do more than let himself sleep.

Bucky watched as the two made it up, not going close for now. He would come back when it was light again, but for then, the two surviving humans had made it to shore and there was nothing else he could do for them while they slept. 


	2. Somewhere Things Are Dry

The air was thick with heat and the overbearing smell of salt, but it was probably the first thing that really pulled Tony back into consciousness. If it weren’t for the pain rooted in his lungs, the pain in his head would have been written off as the usual hangover. No, this was different,  _ wrong _ . The more he could pull himself out of the fog, the more he was realizing that fact. The memory of what had transpired before he fully lost consciousness hit him like a bus, causing a painful gasp and instantly regretted open of eyes. 

The sun was  _ blinding _ , instantly squeezing eyes back shut with a pained grunt. He couldn’t clearly recall anything after the plane took that nosedive. Another noise escaped throat as hands tried to push on the ground underneath him, but found the surface to slide and sink under the movement. What..?

Eyes make their second attempt to open, having to blink heavily to keep from just squeezing them back shut. He wanted– no,  _ needed _ to see what his surroundings were. A hand moves up to press against forehead, feeling a grainy contrast as the sand fell away. The hand lowers to dust off onto shirt, finding the fabric stiffer than it should be and covered in the same grainy feeling. 

The sight that finally managed into focus is bringing up more confusion, eyes hazily taking in the waves rolling into shore in front of him. Eyelids were still heavy with every blink as he struggled to keep eyes open against the blindingly bright surroundings. His mind finally kicked up in gear at attention landing on the figure lying motionless in the sand beside him. The small frame of the person immediately gave away their identity. 

“Steve?” He muttered out, his voice rough sounding from the need for water. He doesn’t get a reply from the other man, reaching a hand out to gently shake him with a more hissed, “ _ Steve! _ ”

A couple of seconds pass of continued stillness before a groggy noise and cough left the small man. His breathing was ragged,  _ painful _ , as he started to wake up again, brain slowly trying to wrap itself around the situation. His eyes slowly fluttered open as another noise dryly left his throat. Hands shift against the sand underneath him before gingerly starting to push himself to sit up instead, feeling as the sand trickled down from having been stuck to skin. 

It was a huge relief to see Steve moving around after all of that. A hand moved out to clasp the smaller man’s shoulder with a gentle squeeze as he watched him sit up. “Easy Rogers. How we doing?” He asked, his own voice surprised him with how scratchy it sounded at normal volume. 

The hand on him helped to get mind better functioning, hazily squinting through the brightness around them to look at Tony. The question caused a hint of a smile before it faded as another cough wracked his body. “Not dead in the water is a plus.” He answered, patting down pockets before reaching in after the lump of the inhaler. “You?” He asked back before taking a puff of it in an attempt to loosen up his lungs.

“Been worse. Still would –  _ prefer _ better than right now.” Tony sighed, throat feeling like sandpaper with every word, hell, every _ breath _ . Besides the physical ailments and the growing concern at realizing their situation, he could at least say that the fact that Steve was there beside him and  _ alive _ was more than a relief. 

Steve had been on the same page as him on that. He knew he couldn’t have handled this kind of situation sanely on his own, and if Tony had– if he wasn’t sitting there next to him then, he didn’t know how he would be handling it. 

With being a little more coherent than before, Tony took the time to look around where they had ended up. It wasn’t what he would call a big island by any means, but there were at least a few good clusters of trees around the middle part of it. Hopefully, that meant they could find a source of water at least until they could figure out a way off. 

“Do you think lightning hit the plane?” 

The question interrupts his thought process, bringing attention back to the smaller man. “Planes are made to stand up to that. Either something internal or intentional.” Tony answered another rough cough rattling up him. 

Steve frowned at the implication, but nodded, giving a small look around himself and furrowing eyebrows. 

“Are we the only ones?” Tony asked back to him, not seeing any sign of any other people having had made it there.

The question caused a noise to leave Steve’s throat, suddenly remembering that someone had helped the two of them. “No, there was a man last night. He swam us here.” Steve told him, shifting around more to try to look around. From their spot up on the shore, he could see through the sparse patches of greenery enough to tell that no one was on the other sides of the island either. 

Tony does the same look around, not seeing a trace of anyone but them. “Are you sure they made it?”

“Tony, I doubt a current could have gotten us on a shore like this.” He replied, pointing at the sandbars out away from the island. 

He squints to look where Steve was pointing, moving a hand to shield eyes from the increasingly blinding sun. “Well, are you sure they made it to shore?”

“How could I be sure of that?” 

“Hey, don’t get sassy when we’re stranded on an island after a plane crash.” 

Steve scrunched nose a little at that, huffing softly as he dropped any replies to move to start getting to feet. The movement instantly felt like a mistake with how sore his body was, but he also wanted to get out of the sun. 

Tony smirked at the silence from Steve and watched as he got up before he followed suit with a grunt. He didn’t quite realize how sore his body felt until after he stood up fully, half tempted to plop straight back down. Everything felt so much heavier than it should as he walked behind Steve to get to the trees. He could already tell that a place like this wouldn’t be able to sustain them for very long. 

The trees at least could get them both out of the sun, which even with the sun not being very high in the sky then, it seemed like the best thing with how hot and bright it was. The only relief from the heat seemed to be the breeze the water brought with it, even if the salty smell was nearly sickening. 

Steve was still stuck on where the other person could have been, thinking heavily about it as he took a seat in the shade. Blue eyes closed for a long moment to relieve his vision of the blinding light that bounced off the waves as they rolled in, keeping them shut until Tony took a seat beside him again. 

“Might take a couple of days for search and rescue to get to where the plane went down. No telling if they’ll look this far.” Tony commented to the other, looking over to Steve. “Wanna wait a day, then if no sign of anyone, we find a way off of here?” He asked, already trying to form some plan in the event of no one finding them.

Steve thinks it over before he nodded to it, “Yeah, okay.” He agreed, not seeing much other options at the moment. He figured their best move right now was to rest and then attempt finding some source of water. “How’s your head?”

“Nothing worse than I can handle. Don’t think I hit it hard enough to do any real damage. I think what got me out was when I got hit in the jaw.” Tony responded with a huff. 

A nod acknowledged that, silence taking over for a long moment between them. Steve’s expression slowly dropped as he kept eyes on Tony, a hand moving to curl around one of his arms. 

A surprised look came back to that, but understanding where the look and touch were coming from. The chances of them both surviving a crash that sounded like only three had come out of was– It wasn’t something that should be possible really. 

He carefully moved out of Steve’s grip to loosely wrap arms around the thin frame of the man, getting arms tightly coiled back around him. And grunting at the squeeze from how sore he was. “Easy.” 

“Sorry.”

Steve curled fingers against the stiffly dried fabric of Tony’s shirt, staying gripped onto him for a few good seconds before letting go to look up more to him. “Glad you’re okay.” 

“Didn’t realize near-death experiences made you such a softie.” Tony teased lightly but smiling a little softer from the words. He was sure glad that Steve was too. 

The tease caused eyes to roll with a scoff before he smacked Tony on the arm for it. He knew him well enough to know he felt the same way even with that response. “Good to know you’re still a jerk either way.” He commented, unable to help the hint of a smile that graced lips. 

The smack hurt more than Tony would like to admit, and definitely more than he would let show, with his entire body feeling so exhausted and sore. He couldn’t imagine what Steve felt like with starting out with a body that wasn’t exactly nice to him. The comment does well to get a half grin and wink back.

Steve shook his head at the weirdo he found himself stranded with, turning attention back out into the water. It looked turbulent out past the sandbanks, figuring the storm from the night before had disrupted the normal behavior of the waves. Between the banks and the shore of where they were at still looked choppy, but seemed shallow enough to not have gotten the same rough crashing. 

Eyes landed on something dark moving along from near the outer banks, the movement getting closer to the island. “Is that a shark?” He muttered aloud, pointing it out to the other man. 

Tony leaned slightly to see where Steve was pointing and spotted the mass on the tail-end of a wave. The sun is catching it well enough to see glints of scales along the back of it as it got closer. “I don’t think so.” 

Yeah, now that it had gotten closer, he could definitely see the scales along the tail glinting. But something about it didn’t look quite– right? Something about the front of what was swimming looked way off from a fish, but he was quickly writing it off as the waves disorienting it or maybe there was something stuck to it. 

Tony found himself on the same page as Steve with it looking odd. Curiosity is getting the better of him as he pushed himself back to his feet with a soft grunt. Huh, maybe it had something on it or in its mouth? A moment crossed where he thought maybe it was a fish with a dead body, but that was pushed aside for being too unlikely. It was somewhat unnerving the way it looked like it headed straight for the shore, though the rough water could possibly explain the behavior. 

The mass moved until it was around three-quarters of the way from between where the sandbanks were and the shore of the island before it stopped. The water was still decently deep for it there, but it slowly moved upward, feeling the slosh of the waves before moving to slowly surface to look at the humans. He was slightly taken aback by them looking straight back at him.

Tony’s mouth gaped for a good moment before looking to Steve, then back at–  _ whatever _ he was seeing. “Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought.” He muttered with a bit of a huffed noise, though having seen Steve’s expression, he knew that he was seeing the same thing.

Brown eyes turned back fully to the  _ thing _ bobbing on the surface of the water. The face looking back was almost human. Almost. Scales of a splotched blue color came up along certain parts of the face from what he could see. From there it looked like wet hair stuck down the sides of its face to meet the scales and cover more back along neck. What he could only assume were ears looked frilled as they pinned backward with it definitely understanding they were looking right at it.

Steve swallowed as it ducked back under the water, watching as the creature slowly started to get closer to the shore, getting to where the depth inclined upwards to the shore before it popped up again, able to get an even better look at the humanoid thing as it looked straight at them from what he guessed was ten feet or so from the shore.  

“What the hell is that?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Maybe I won't take two weeks for another chapter.
> 
> :) Maybe.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! I have a loose idea of where I want to go with this one, but definitely excited to write it.


End file.
